In news that is sure to send shock waves throughout the ethanol industry and the EPA, one of the world’s largest oil companies is shelving plans to produce so-called cellulosic ethanol from non-food plants such as wood chips and switchgrass. As described in an article from the Wall Street Journal, “BP PLC Thursday said it is ending plans to build a commercial-scale cellulosic-ethanol plant in Florida, saying it instead will focus on research and development.”

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Commodities, by one definition, are “mass-produced unspecialized products.” Typical traded commodities include grain, coffee, sugar, pork bellies, feeder cattle, industrial and precious metals, natural gas and oil. They are produced worldwide in enormous quantities, resulting in most cases in far lower real costs than a century ago when limitations to transportation and political barriers to trade restricted producers to their own local markets.

For many years, aircraft manufacturers have made use of some of these commodities, [Read more...]

Pilots in the Midwest have received some good news amidst the rising cost of avgas in recent months. Both the Havana Regional Airport (9I0, Havana, Ill.) and the Park Township Airport (HLM, Holland, Mich.) started mogas sales in recent months.

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Being well into the second half-century of my life, I vividly recall how, in 1973, the OPEC oil embargo, knee-jerk government-imposed price controls and the subsequent shortage of gasoline wreaked havoc on our nation’s economy. On my 16th birthday of that year, Nov. 6, I soloed an airplane for the first time at the late, great Kentucky Flying Service on Bowman Field, Louisville, Ky., where I happily slaved each weekend as a line boy to earn the $20 required for an hour and a half of dual in a C150.

Although the hourly rates for flying remained fairly stable over the next year, the cost of gas needed to get to the airport started cutting into my meager funds, stressed further when I discovered girls. With the appearance of the first “Hep-er-Sef” self-service gas stations, bringing significant cost savings, things started looking up for this plane-crazy teenager.

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GAfuels readers won’t be surprised by the conclusions of a new study from MIT graduate student Kamala I. Shetty: Higher fuel prices lead to less flying. The study, “CURRENT AND HISTORICAL TRENDS IN GENERAL AVIATION IN THE UNITED STATES,” included a survey of pilots on their past and future flying habits and what affects this.

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